Glitches (Book 1)

Chapter 3: Claire

On this chapter is Claire now, when she is older.

.................

I had never attempted anything like this before.

In fact, I surprised even myself with my decision.

As I focused on Justin's expression, I knew he hadn't been expecting this, either. Yet, I knew it was the only way to prove to someone like him that my powers, whatever they were, were real.

What's the point? I thought after a moment, questioning the necessity of my actions.

Why should I care if he thinks I'm a fake?

Unfortunately, my ego disagreed with this calmer and more logical approach to the situation. I had millions of fans and one hater, but I desperately wanted to turn him into a believer. It was just how my brain worked back then.

Blocking out the screaming of my overenthusiastic audience, I reached into Justin's Floaty Computer.

Yes, I still called it that. There had been no reason to change the childish nickname I had given the numbers at age six. After all, no one but me would ever know it.

My brother's Computer was messy, with numbers and letters flying everywhere. The lines of code were barely perceptible amid the confused mass of random symbols. Despite the fact that I was very familiar with him and his Computer, it took me a few moments to figure out where everything was.

This was no surprise, because each person's Computer usually reflected the person in both appearance and content. Justin was hardly the most organized person I knew. Fishing around in the jumble of green characters floating above my brother's head, I managed to grab enough of them to make the two sequences that would be essential to my trick.

Will rise ten feet above ground when Claire snaps fingers.

Will return to ground level when Claire claps hands.

"Are you ready, everyone?" I yelled, pretending to be totally pumped. In reality, I felt half dead. It was almost the end of the day and I had been in my tour bus for four hours with no one to talk to but Justin, my parents, and my two agents, Len and Michael.

Those men had given up their jobs when I was six to market me and book me on my tours. Believe me, I was pretty tired of them. And my family...well, they're my family. So basically, I had endured four hours of staring at the wall. It wasn't an interesting wall either: just a plain, predictable beige.

"Ready...set...go!" I made a big show of snapping with my left hand while simultaneously raising it into the air. However, this was just a means of distracting my audience from the actual, less glamorous Computer manipulation that I performed with my dominant hand. I angled myself into the right side of the stage, partly concealing that half of my body to complete the effect.

For a few moments, Justin remained in front of me, his arms crossed in a gesture of defiance. Seconds later, his smug expression vaporized as his heels began to slowly lift off the ground. Curling my lips into a triumphant smirk, I set the entire Computer sequence into action and watched as my brother shot up above my head. He stared at me in horror, and I just winked.

"There's gotta be something holding me up," Justin argued, still not convinced. After all those years of adamant opposition, his pride wouldn't allow him to admit that I did, indeed, see the Computer.

"Go ahead and check," I shrugged confidently. I barely suppressed a giggle as my brother swam awkwardly through the air, vigorously slapping every part of his body in search for any invisible wires or other concealed devices.

"Any wires?" I flashed the innocent smile he despised.

"Nope, but that just means it's an electromagnet." Gosh, it was hard to persuade the guy. Luckily, though, I was prepared.

"It's a good thing I know you and your scientific ways well enough to have guessed you'd say that." I pulled a gigantic electromagnet from the sparkly bag on the side of the stage and pointed it at my brother's gradually reddening face. Although I hadn't anticipated my brother himself walking up to the stage, I had readied myself in advance for possible arguments against my powers. Public humiliation was the last thing I wanted to experience on the day after an extremely successful world tour.

"If there was another one of these attached to you, you'd either be stuck to this one, or flying away from it. You're not moving, though. The electromagnet is having no effects whatsoever. That, my dear brother, means—"

"I know. It means there isn't another magnet in the vicinity. I'm not stupid, Claire." He made a hilarious annoyed face as he glared at me. He wanted to make sure that everyone knew who the science-y member of the family was.

"You sure about that?" I raised a playfully quizzical eyebrow, thrilled by the peals of laughter from the audience behind me though Justin clearly wasn't.

A spotlight zoned in on his crimson, scowling face, and two gigantic representations of him appeared on the large screens on either side of the stage. My crew had done a spectacular job of highlighting the humor of the moment. I almost felt relieved that, for once, I wasn't the focus of the performance.

"Oh, I can't believe I haven't thought of this one yet. Maybe I've just fallen asleep on the tour bus and I'm dreaming about tonight's show! Even illogical things like a person flying unaided can happen in a dream, right?" My brother shot me his signature can't-get-this-one look.

A dream? Was he trying to look like an idiot?

"Pinch yourself," I ordered. "Or do whatever you usually do to wake up when you're having a nightmare. Besides, I'm sure your dreams aren't vivid enough for you to confuse them with real life." I took a slight pause and turned to the audience. "Folks, I can spend the rest of this evening proving my brother wrong, or we can do something a little more fun." The many enthusiastic cheers from all around showed the onlookers' preference for the latter.

"I win, again," I gave Justin a victorious grin.

"This isn't over," Justin hissed as I once again reached into his Code to add some humorous commands for the rest of the show.

"Yes, it is," I said assuredly. "There are some things in this world your science can't explain, Justin. Deal with it."

If only I knew then that science was the very basis of my powers.

And they were not intended for entertainment.